Chương 45: Chapter 42: Ode to Silence

"This is an interesting spell, but I must say that I… don't quite get it, my prince. Spellcircles aren't my forte," Azithromycin revealed as she read the projected book Nolotl showed her on the Ode to Silence spell. Thought Projection was showing its true capabilities beyond helping with Simulacrum as the Boon was quite literal with its name.

Not only did Azithromycin allow low-level access to her mind with Lesser Read Thoughts to ease the connection, but Nolotl was also projecting the book with illusion cantrips, which resulted in a very real book as far as the biomancer was concerned. Not that different from that time in the zeroth loop where Xanax made Nolotl's mind think that he had a hefty Deep Ebony ball in his hand.

Such was the beauty of Boons; he was using three of them in tandem— Perfect Recollection being the last one to accurately recreate the book—to create for free a replica of the spell he had read yesterday. No cost involved, just a clever application of all the abilities he had been granted.

"You get the gist of it, at least, don't you?" Nolotl inquired.

"I do, I do," she nodded.

"Being a form of magic meant to be sung instead of cast makes it easier for me to understand, so I get the spell's functionality. Though a question arises with this. Why the sudden interest in akyromancy?"

"You know how gnosiamancy allows one to cast any school of magic, even elemental ones?" Azithromycin nodded at her words.

"Well, I've started walking that path. Not just in the sense of perfectly comprehending the spellware to make a perfect cast, but to also get proficiencies with everything. Ironically enough, this divination is a steppingstone for me to get proficiency with abjuration instead of akyromancy per se." Nolotl wasn't stupid.

Enantyum had mentioned that Alignment Assimilation was a level 10 Boon and it would give proficiency with the whole school rather than just a single spell, so the diviner could easily infer that not only did a Greater Alignment Assimilation exist, but also that the proficiency would extend to the main school of the generic ones; i. e. the elemental schools. But the pattern was also easy to extrapolate.

He wouldn't have access to such a thing until level 15, and considering that level 10 was already way postgraduate tier and even past established mages, it wasn't like the terian prince was giving himself any hopes. Enantyum might kill me way before I even get the chance to get close to that level. He was simply being pragmatic, though pragmatism wasn't incompatible with pessimism and fatalism.

"Anyhow," Nolotl clapped, mostly to clear his own thoughts rather than to get Azithromycin's attention, "I still want your help with this spell."

"I'm willing to help, Lord Nolotl, but… what could I even do?" She made a very valid question.

"A photomancer or taximancer would help you more with music than me. Hells, even a chronomancer or gnosiamancer might have more of an ear for music due to their timing compared to mine. A sensitive ear isn't a keen one."

"You're not wrong, but I'm searching more of a partner than someone to help me cast the spell with. Sonomancies are mostly performances, so they tend to be easier to, well… perform when there's an audience. Beyond that, I would also appreciate pointers as I'm not the best singer around."

"I did hear you preach and chant when you were a child at the temple and you weren't bad in the slightest, high priest."

"Azi…" The gnosiamancer softly smoldered, though it came out as more of a pout.

"Sorry, my prince," the biomancer nodded dutifully.

"But you should still be competent with xenoglossia, aren't you?"

"I have good diction and solid understanding of languages as a whole, but I'm not sure how either of those capabilities will translate to singing," he revealed.

"Excuse me if I'm overstepping my boundaries," Azithromycin added hesitantly, "but aren't you just being shy?" Nolotl smacked his lips and failed to produce a word.

"I must admit that… well, having to make a whole performance out of a single spell is a bit embarrassing. Gnosiamancy—even if not to the degree of akyromancy—tends to be a more private type of school of magic. Not flashy, just utilitarian."

"I see," the older terian nodded and Nolotl instantly could tell that she was thinking something rude. Not only was she portraying such mannerisms, but he was still somewhat connected to her mind to show her the book, even if he couldn't actually read her thoughts. Azithromycin wasn't a gnosiamancer, after all.

"Well, I can still hear you and give you pointers if you want an audience."

"I would appreciate it," the younger terian nodded.

"You can practice with katas in the meanwhile whilst I practice."

"That would be rude from my part," she instantly countered.

"I still have to internalize the spell and make some preparations, so I won't be starting just yet. You can practice with an assured mind that you won't lose my voice nor disrespect me."

"If the prince says so…" Azithromycin sighed and picked up the macuahuitl that she had been using as a cane all this time to start with her katas. The sound of a hefty club-sword being swung around and cutting through the air made a lot of noise, but if Nolotl was confident on something, it was his ability to abstract the whole outside world and only focus on what mattered to him. After all, he had been working on the extremely noisy printing press workshop for more than a month.

The fact that Ode to Silence was an akyromancy already made things weird from the start even if he technically had a proficiency with it. Technically half of the Alignment roster had a proficiency with this spell thanks to the sonomancy addendum, but the elemental school tended to trump over everything. At least, it certainly was the main focus of the spell. Any type of magic that didn't have gnosiamancy as its focus was complex for Nolotl, even when considering his personal focus with divination.

The one thing that distinguished gnosiamancy from the other schools—beyond the usage of the Cognition—was that it was a purely theoretical subject. If you completely understood the theory and fulfilled all of the requirements, then you could simply cast the spell. That's how he had managed to cast Simulacrum even if his level was barely any different from the spell tier, which was insane. Boons did help, but it was that perfect one-to-one recreation from theory to practice that made it possible.

Other schools weren't like that. They had a deeply instinctual component that transcended common theory. It was more… emotional, in some sense of speech. Some gnosiamancer puritans liked to call gnosiamancy the only true magic because of it, but Nolotl didn't subscribe to such school of thought. So that meant that to cast the spell in front of him—he could project the book to himself, of course—he needed to approach it from a less analytical point of view and instead a more emo… Chaos assimilation progressed by 1%.

"What the fuck was that?" Nolotl cursed aloud as a very random notification caressed both his eyes and ears. Mentally speaking, of course.

"Something wrong, Lord Nolotl?" Azithromycin asked as she had heard him from all the way on the arena.

"Nothing, nothing!" he dismissed the matter.

"I just surprised myself! You can continue practicing!"

"Alright!" She added before continuing to swing her macuahuitl in a martial trance.

"Okay, okay," Nolotl spoke to himself at a lower volume.

"What in the previous earth was that? Why did Chaos assimilate itself when I was thinking of a Void spell? Where's the logic in that?" The terian softly scratched his arm whilst pondering as the healing itch still lingered a bit and he hadn't had the chance to scratch it until now as he hadn't recalled his wings.

"The only answer that comes to mind is that Chaos progress is fully random like the actual ataxiamancer leveling system, but that makes no sense. I'm not leveling shit, I'm assimilating it, how can I randomly assimilate something out of nowhere?" Arcane assimilation progressed by 1%.

"…Okay, now I'm lost," the gnosiamancer sighed and his shoulder collapsed as he sat defeatedly on the grades of the arena.

"This simply makes no sense whatsoever. Arcane is like the exact opposite of chance. It's fact, it's stability." The terian scratched his nape and decided to no longer think about it. He was sure there had to be some underlying logic to the progress of his assimilation rates, but he had too few points of information to work with and he decided that he just should be happy that he got work off from assimilating the other Alignments in the future.

With a deep and calming breath, Nolotl started focusing again on the spellware of the Ode to Silence divination. A lot of his status helped him comprehend better the spell thanks to the divination part, but there was something that surprised him more.

"Huh, I thought that Thought Projection was limited to visual information because the description of the Boon literally started with the word 'visualization', but it seems that any kind of transmission of information works, even verbal one." He had yet to begin cast the spell, but his deep connection with Alignment allowed him to feel the Boon's presence over his gathering thoughts, one soft guiding hand not dissimilar to that of proficiencies.

Some Boons might seem trivial or negligible when their description first appeared, but the thing about Alignment was that every single grain of effort contributed to the whole. He hadn't even begun casting and he was already feeling the efforts of Thought Projection and Cognition Connection helping him progress. And that was only the Boons.

Gnosiamancer was helping with its proficiencies and High Priest of Nochochenca had helped him since little as it boosted all divinations, even if it was mostly focused on astral ones. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Hmm, now that I'm fully aware of how much time per loop I have to use my Animal Spirits before running out of time, I could use them to boost my understanding of spells. That will be mostly the Crow Crown's effort, but the Quetzal Wings can help me once I get to the Light Alignment. But there's still a whole lot of time before I get there." It was very easy to get ahead of oneself, and even easier to get distracted.

The only reason why Nolotl hadn't been consumed by one of his side quests was because of the looming threat called Enantyum. One year was a lot of time, but the last thing he wanted was to cut close. At the very least, he wanted to aim for 90% assimilation of Void by half his deadline, allowing him to dillydally and pursue his other interests whilst still having more than enough time to complete the goal.

"Well, enough rambling," Nolotl took a deep breath and started focusing on the spell. He wasn't quite sure what to sing just yet, but considering the few songs he did know were mostly Tezlan lullabies and that the requirement for Ode to Silence was a sorrowful song, he was limited in his choice. Fortunately for him, lots of Tezlan lullabies included man-eating monsters and stillborn children. Nobody ever specified whether lullabies should induce dreams or nightmares.

The spellware flashed through his eyes thanks to Perfect Recollection to help him as some sort of arcane sheet music, but before he could utter the first word of the lullaby, he felt a violent snapping in his mind and half of his sight going blind. The panic only lasted a moment before he realized what had happened.

"Ah, right. The Simulacrum," he sighed.

"Why did I ever think that it would remain summoned when I practiced Ode to Silence?" Even beginning to sing the spell had caused him to dedicate concentration to it, which meant an instantaneous dispel of his more advanced divination. The Simulacrum allowed him to behave so naturally that his mind hadn't processed that it wasn't his Simulacrum that couldn't cast Ode to Silence but his whole self.

"Starless Ehecatl and its leeching of my new mind," Nolotl cursed at the opportunity of having lost his second concentration slot. He wouldn't have thought he would be needing it so soon, and that only irritated him more.

"Why did I even bother putting the Simulacrum in the cupboard if it was going to get recalled? Am I stupid?" Ignoring the fact that the answer could probably be a yes, the diviner took a deep breath and focused himself on the spell and the song that was meant to guide it." Xochi atla ehetl nohualita owura~" He melodiously sang the horrifying lullaby meant to scare children into thanking the heavens for having had a healthy birth and not being stillborn.

Whilst he was proud of his culture, Nolotl had to admit it had its weird quirks here and there. His voice certainly came out charged with mana and he felt his surroundings change serendipitously because the spell hadn't found any purchase. Any alteration due to his voice was pure chance, even if he had been able to summon some motes of dark inexistence around him. Void assimilation progressed by 1%.

"Huh, nice," Nolotl smacked his lips in satisfaction, not having expected any progress after failing to cast the spell.

"At least this failure didn't carry any negatives." It was an understatement to say he was still sorely annoyed due to the intrusion on his mind after having failed a ritual that he had been preparing for half a year. Mentally, the Empyrean of Information gestured his Real-Time Status spell to show him a specific part of his status. Lesser Alignment Assimilation Progress: - Void ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 10%"Nice, nice." The corners of his lips slightly raised at that sight.

"Enantyum was right, seeing numbers go up does nice things to one's psyche. And this Boon has only given me more numbers to work with. Three assimilation notifications on a single day is very good progress." Nolotl chose to actively ignore the fact that two of those notifications were completely unrelated with his current venture. But progress was progress, and that meant he would need to dedicate less effort when he got to those Alignments in the future.

"Oh, well. Time to practice this spell and maybe find a more appropriate song to go along with it." Considering that Beta no longer had a way to communicate with him meant that he had limitless time as he doubted the akyromancer would go out of her way to look out for his 'assistant', but he wasn't that much of a douche.

"One week sounds nice for starters." It had to be stated that one week meant nothing for a spell of this category. In this case, the author of the spell hadn't decided to classify its difficulty, but Nolotl placed Ode to Silence around second or third tier. Which translated on the fact that even with all of his bonuses to divination, it would still take him a while to cast it successfully.

There were many things he could do to accelerate the process, like for example searching for a sonomancer as it was bound to at least be one in the biggest magical academy of the world, but he considered that a waste when he already had a teacher. That was clearly the reason and not because he was a bit shy and adverse to meeting new people. As extravagant as the empyreans were, they were the poison he knew. It was way easier dealing with people that had already been introduced to you.

The only reason why the diviner hadn't experienced any difficulties during his first loop on the workshop was because all the enchanters were even more socially awkward than him, which really boosted his confidence. Though still, it was mostly aversion rather than shyness. He continued to practice under Azithromycin's gaze, or rather, whilst Azithromycin herself also practiced.

The warrior had suggested him a folkloric song about the ashes of the previous earths and the charred bodies that still roamed it, which certainly fulfilled the 'sorrowful' required of Ode to Silence whilst also having the positive aspect of being in Tezlan. No matter if he had now spent more time in Origin than Tezlan, it was impossible to shed one's mother tongue and Nolotl had way more ease on singing in his native language.

There was also the positive that he didn't feel comfortable singing in front of people, especially if he were to use this divination in combat, so having the song in Tezlan helped that at least not that many people in this part of Lon understood the song.

"You're certainly a good singer, my prince, but… Hmm, I don't know how to put it into words," Azithromycin remained pensive as she supported her body weight on her macuahuitl, swaying her body and spotted tail from side to side as she pondered.

"You can say it in Tezlan if the words don't come to you," Nolotl offered.

"No, it's not a language issue," she explained.

"The words just don't come to me, regardless of tongue. If I had to say something, it's that you don't seem to grasp the essence of the spell. Or perhaps the element?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that," the diviner sighed in defeat as he pressed his forehead against the spear's head.

"This might be especially hard for you to comprehend because even when you use restorations, the keystone of the spells remains Life. That's not the case here. The keystone is an element I'm not familiar with." Whilst this wasn't his first time casting a Void spell, it wasn't like Vacuous Filtration made any dent in his experience. It was a first tier spell and one he had proficiency with. Perhaps the same could be said about Ode to Silence, but this one was hard enough that he couldn't brute force it.

"I appreciate all your help this last week, but it seems I will have to go to my teacher to make any real progress. At least I've managed to assimilate this spell a bit." Quite the ironic choice of words as the gnosiamancer had failed to progress by even a single percentage in his assimilation of the Alignment.

"I'm glad to be of assistance, even if I didn't do much," the biomancer added.

"Well, you did give me your opinions on my singing and chose the song, that's quite a lot. Once again, I appreciate it," he reiterated. A part of him knew that all of this gratitude would be useless due to the time loop, but he couldn't help but be a decent person. No, it's not useless, he told himself as Azithromycin bowed in response with equal gratitude. At least I'm aware of it, and… An image of torn Cognition flashed on his mind.

And the time loop will have cognitive consequences, so I should do my best to mitigate them from the very start. Especially me, in a way, I'm far more vulnerable than Enantyum. It didn't matter that he had Resistance to Cognitive Harm, Nolotl was still a gnosiamancer open to the Cognition, and an issue that was especially clear due to the parasite in his mind. It stresses me to know that the Ehecatl is there, but I don't really want to lose my Information enchantment slot. Not for anything in this world.

And another source of stress was the master of the time loop. Perhaps Enantyum Dei was mentally… unbalanced from looping countless times, but he could decide to stop whenever he pleased. That wasn't an option to Nolotl Xocoyotzin, Interlooper. With a heavy heart and bloated mind, the terian found himself in front of the doors leading to the Void Tower, now in flesh and blood.

"Oh, pulsars… I'm going to hate this, aren't I?" He expected someone to talk to him, but even the Ehecatl remained silent. Nolotl opened the doors of the tower after an awkward second, letting the sidereal cosmos pour into his eyes. Now that he wasn't using Simulacrum, he could use Vacuous Filtration, and along with his new Blessing, he could only hope that it helped him.

The terian prince took a step forward, a ripple of fictional reality traversing his body from foot to head, his whole subconscious screaming at him. You have resisted Madness. You have resisted Suppression.

"Huh," he mused to himself once his whole body was inside of the tower.

"All of the other mental effects have been completely suppressed, except Madness, but that's kinda a pincer attack on my mind, so it makes sense it's still there. Same with Suppression considering its physical behavior." Nolotl looked around to find the same cosmic background that the Simulacrum had seen and finding nothing different, no matter that now it was his real feet touching the invisible floor.

"And I feel something weird… False Serpent's Touch is working, but I also feel another Blessing… Is it Starguided?" That realization baffled him.

"Does this micro-cosmos count as the actual one? I need to check this in a more thorough manner." The effect wasn't as strong as sunlight or starlight in a clear night, which made it difficult for him to comprehend if that was truly the case. But divinations were his forte, and this specific task was meant for them. Not only that, but he had a spell that was constantly checking his vitals and Alignment so… You feel the guidance of the stars.

"Nice, that's a personalized notification from the Real-Time Status," he nodded in satisfaction.

"I wonder how much I can tinker with the spell before its spellware collapses in a bloated mess." He already had to modify it so it didn't bombard him with notifications of Alignment increases or constant madness pop-ups, so he had to be careful to not toy too much with it until he leveled up a bit more.

"And before I forget…" Nolotl closed the door leading out of the Void Tower as he didn't want to summon an annoyed Tower Master. The moment he closed the door, he lost the last frame of reference that kept his mind and body tied to the Physicality.

"Oh… This is weird. And dizzy." His mind was unable to comprehend he wasn't floating in space. Experience told him that the Void Tower still existed, but brains could be stupid things and it had a hard time processing that he wasn't in the vacuum of space. The Starguided Blessing helped in that sense as the cosmos offered him guidance, whispering him that everything was fine.

"Ah… ah…" He softly breathed, relaxing himself as he inhaled copiously.

"Okay, time to do this. It will only get worse." The next step he took forward guided him to the center of the tower, the section where gravity stopped working, and now finding himself unable to tell his moronic brain that he wasn't in space as his body started spiraling around.

"…I'm going to hate this," he groaned, finding himself floating face down. At least relatively speaking.

"Correction, I already hate it." Birds didn't fare well in space.